In Region 1-AAAA, Carver-Columbus will have an opportunity to distance itself even further in front of the rest of the field. Following the Tigers’ massive 52-46 win over Cairo last Friday, the team improved to 5-0 in region play, making them the only remaining team in 1-AAAA without a conference loss. This week, they will go up against Westover, which is 3-1 in the region after experiencing a 49-14 loss to Cairo earlier in the season. The only other team in 1-AAAA with just one loss is Americus-Sumter. The Panthers are 3-1, but its loss (20-14) came to Hardaway, which is 1-3 in the region.
This will be a light week in Region 2-AAAA with Howard facing off with Perry and the rest of the region observing its bye weeks. Perry is 1-0 in Region 2-AAAA and Howard is 0-1. Last year, Howard took it 35-16 and eventually grabbed the No. 3 seed, while Perry secured the No. 4 seed. That being said, West Laurens, which is on its bye, missed out on the playoffs last year with a 1-4 region finish, but this year, the Raiders are already 2-0 in region play, including a 43-7 win over Howard. West Laurens will face off with Mary Persons next Friday in what could be the de facto region title game.
Baldwin and Burke County each moved to 1-0 in Region 3-AAAA this past week; Richmond Academy and Cross Creek dropped to 0-1 and Thomson enters this week 0-0 after observing a bye. Thomson takes on Baldwin this Friday and Burke County goes head-to-head with Richmond Academy. Last year, Baldwin won 27-6 and then swept the rest of the five-team region en route to the region title. Similarly to last year’s Baldwin team, this year’s Braves opened up the season 0-5 before picking up a win over Greebrier and opening up region play with a victory over Richmond Academy. If Baldwin can pick up another win over Thomson this Friday, then it will set up a region championship showdown with No. 8 ranked Burke County the following week.
Woodward Academy looks unstoppable in Region 4-AAAA and the War Eagles defeated reigning region champion Eastside 49-7 last Friday to move to 3-0 in region play and 6-0 overall.
In Region 5-AAAA, this Friday will be all about 6-0 Sandy Creek facing off with 7-0 Cartersville. Sandy Creek opened up its region schedule with a bang, defeating Troup 44-7 and then scoring a 45-24 win over Chapel Hill. Cartersville has not lost a region game since 2011 and has not lost a regular season game since 2014.
Northwest Whitfield followed up its historic win over Ridgeland with a 37-20 win over LaFayette last Friday. Now, the 5-1 Bruins have a chance to improve to 2-0 in Region 6-AAAA this Friday night against reigning region champion Pickens, which dropped to 2-1 in region play after last Friday’s 21-20 loss to Heritage-Catoosa.
Region 7-AAAA will be home to a pair of top 10 showdowns that will heavily influence this year’s playoff picture. No. 5 Blessed Trinity (5-1, 2-0) will host No. 7 Flowery Branch (6-0, 2-0) and No. 1 Marist (7-0, 3-0) will host No. 10 Denmark (5-1, 2-1). This is a must-win for Denmark if they are going to be able to reassert itself into the race for the region title.
There are two Region 8-AAAA games scheduled for Friday. Undefeated North Oconee (7-0, 1-0) will face St. Pius (3-4, 1-0) and Oconee County (6-1, 1-0) will face Stephens County (1-5, 0-0). North Oconee opened up region play with a 33-14 win over Madison County and Oconee County scored a big 21-7 win over St. Pius last Friday to open up 1-0.
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